Excellent Vanity Fair article on the AF447 disaster, covering pilots' team-leadership skills, Clipper Skippers, Alternate Law, and autopilot design: 'There is an old truth in aviation that the reasons you get into trouble become the reasons you don’t get out of it.'

Also interesting:

'The best pilots discard the [autopilot] automation naturally when it becomes unhelpful, and again there appear to be some cultural traits involved. Simulator studies have shown that Irish pilots, for instance, will gleefully throw away their crutches, while Asian pilots will hang on tightly. It’s obvious that the Irish are right, but in the real world Sarter’s advice is hard to sell. The automation is simply too compelling. The operational benefits outweigh the costs. The trend is toward more of it, not less. And after throwing away their crutches, many pilots today would lack the wherewithal to walk.'